Polymath

Peter Burke is emeritus professor of cultural history at Cambridge University. He is the author of many distinguished books that have been translated into more than thirty languages.

“An admirable mixture of industry and erudition.”—Robert Wilson, Wall Street Journal "A few pages at a time about interdisciplinary giants such as Leibniz, Diderot and Germaine de Stael can be energizing."—Michael Dirda, Washington Post"In a mind-stretching history, Peter Burke describes '500 western polymaths' from the half-millennium since Leonardo da Vinci."—Andrew Robinson, Nature.comIncluded in the Financial Times’ round up “2020 visions: the year ahead in books”“This book not only teaches us something important about polymathy's past; it does an excellent job of opening our eyes to polymathy's future too.”—Costica Bradatan, Times Literary Supplement“In a mind-stretching history, Peter Burke describes “500 western polymaths” from the half-millennium since Leonardo da Vinci.”—Andrew Robinson, Nature“[I]t is most welcome to find a great historian, Peter Burke, tackling the history of the intellectual persona who refuses to be stymied by disciplinary boundaries: the ‘polymath’...Burke has compiled a list of five hundred individuals...Given this range, it would be impossible not to find something interesting in this book.”—Dimitri Levitin, Literary Review“As Samuel Johnson said, "All knowledge is of itself of some value. There is nothing so minute or inconsiderable, that I would not rather know it than not." The Polymath dares us to follow Johnson's optimism, making serendipitous connections as we go.”—Peter Chappell, Prospect“The Polymath serves a valuable role as the first modern attempt to categorise and analyse an inherently slippery group of thinkers who are easily missed or seen in only one dimension by other studies….Burke’s work will be an essential starting point for future scholars wishing to explore in more detail the initial outline presented here.”—Kelsey Jackson Williams, Cultural and Social History“A book such as Burke's meets a pressing contemporary need. His minor tour de force of painstakingly assembled erudition deserves to find its way into the hands of everyone, humanists and scientists alike.”—Roger Hausheer, Society“An absorbing and polymathic account of an important intellectual species. This is a significant and timely book, because in illustrating why our culture needs polymaths as well as specialists it prompts us to think afresh about the aims of education and what we need to better inform our public conversation.”—A. C. Grayling“As well as illuminating general patterns, Burke’s polymaths fizz with their own energy, obsessiveness, and life.”—Neil Kenny,author of The Uses of Curiosity in Early Modern France and Germany"The author and his subjects undoubtedly inhabit a shared world, which Burke explains to the rest of us with remarkable insight and understanding, providing both historical depth and remarkable cross-disciplinary breadth.”— Paul Duguid, co-author of The Social Life of Information “In this kaleidoscopic account, Peter Burke unfolds the amazing stories of “monsters of erudition,” tracing the fate of the universal thinker in a world flooding with information.”— Daniel Rosenberg, co-author of Cartographies of Time